Australian duo The Presets is solely in the business of making uncompromising bangers that underscore the sinister side of having fun. The band has played to sweat-soaked youths in dark rooms all around the world, and even opened for Daft Punk when they stopped by Australia. But for a set who have little to say on stage, they definitely parry with the best of them off.

Most of the time when someone puts their foot in their mouth, it’s because of their inner monologue coming out, or because they merely misspoke. Worse than either of those instances, is when someone trips up just because they don’t know the meaning of a word. This is especially true in the pursuit of some journalistic endeavor, in which case knowing what words mean is key. Case in point: during this interview it was implied that the Presets music is just a limp-dick imitation of what’s come before it - all because a misused connotation of “derivative,” used to refer to music that is hardly an imitation at all. This is why the interview makes a beguiling shift in tone about halfway through. This is why you don’t cross The Presets.

Pensatos: Your show tonight was sold out. Is that something you all have been doing a lot lately; selling out shows?
Kim Moyes: In Australia we sell out shows; like this time we did a tour and the whole thing was sold out in like a day. That raises the stakes on what you expect of yourself and everything. But this tour - this is the third night - and the first two sold out and all of them are looking like they’re gonna sell out so that’s cool. I think we’d be pretty bummed if we were touring with “Cut Copy and The Presets” and the shows didn’t sell out.  I mean it depends where we are, like other places in Europe, that we haven’t played there before might not [sell out]. You know it’s a good vibe when there’s a lot of people there but sometimes you play a little show in like Salt Lake City like 100 people who have been waiting for us to come the whole time and they’re basically the only 100 people who know us. They end up having the fucking time of their lives and the energy’s just as intense with a smaller crowd anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.

“We didn’t piss our pants like a little girl.” - when asked about touring with Daft Punk

You all studied music at a conservatory. Did you ever see yourselves doing anything like The Presets when you guys went into that?
KM: I mean personally I always kind of wanted to do band stuff, ever since I was a kid. Ever since I sort of discovered listening to music. But yeah for me it wasn’t necessarily like the style of The Presets, but definitely involved with this side of the music business; being or playing in a band. But when I was at uni and studying classical music and stuff I kind of got a little bit sidetracked. That’s a whole different world, and there was a minute there when I thought I would be in an orchestra or whatever. But as soon as I left it kind of went. I finished that part of my education but now its time to learn about making music and production and all that sort of shit.

Julian Hamilton: No not at all. I mean I know I always wanted to have a career in music but to be honest pop music was the last thing on my mind when I went there. But then again, I don’t know what was at the forefront - just music.

So then you went on (before Presets) to be in a more rock-oriented band…
KM: A bit more soundtrack-y like instrumental-y, like Tortoise or something. You know that band? It was actually pretty similar instrumentation. It wasn’t necessarily more rocky as it was probably more jazzy.

I was just wondering out of curiosity: do those guys still make music?
JH: Yeah I think so.

KM: They’re all working and playing in bands and stuff like that. Dave the bass player, he’s a musical director and Jared’s a really fantastic drummer doing really fantastic stuff.

What kind of bands did you all listen when you were growing up?JH: For me it was really everything and anything that was on the radio. I didn’t have older brothers or anything like that to sort of show me anything cool.  But mostly just rap music when rap music was big and all the crap that was on the radio. It’s weird when you’re going growing up. I think of that as the teenage years: pubey and adolescence. I don’t know if anyone listens to anything cool at that age.

“Whenever there’s two guys with their shirts off they immediately think homoerotic. But you know, girls in bikinis, not so much of that.”

When I hear about fourteen-year-olds who–
JH: Snuck into Bad Brains concerts–

Yeah, I feel like I don’t trust them or something.
JH: No, no.

Apocalypso sounds more stylistically consistent than Beams.
KM: I guess we were very aware of the way that Beams jumped around a lot, but when we made it we were still figuring out what we were doing as a band and as a live act as well. So a lot of the songs were written in a way that was like, “Let’s do something like this,” and we just liked what [how it sounded]. But then once we started touring, it became blatantly obvious what sort of band we were. Also you kind of want to figure out before you make another record - a follow up record. On Apocalypso we were just very sure about how it was going to sound and what we felt comfortable doing.

So in that same vein, has maybe the crowd response to Apocalypso sort of clued you in as to what you might do on your next album?
JH: It always does, I guess. I mean like Kim was saying: we never played Beams live. Then we took it on the road and it kind of became this other beast which in turn influenced Apocalypso. ‘My People’ for instance was always intended to sound like techno, but also like a band. Make it sound like what it would be like on a stage. And now that we’re playing it live it’s taken on a life of its own again. We haven’t really began to think about the next record yet because every show you do and every song you hear - it all goes in there somewhere.

It seems like a lot of derivative music bands with really offshoot music are coming out of Australia - like you guys, Cut Copy, Midnight Juggernauts–
JH: [protesting] Derivative?

No I definitely mean this as a compliment.
JH: We try and make it our own thing. Every band - what band isn’t derivative?! Who’s coming out with a wholly original thing?

“I find personally I like listening to music less and less.”

KM: Yeah exactly. When the Beatles and Stones were making music they were ripping off of blues bands. It’s not like… you haven’t even finished your question, and we already jumped in–

No, go ahead and finish.
KM: I think of that cliché: no artist lives in a vacuum - but it’s true. I mean you do make stuff and you make it intuitively but a lot of it’s based on what’s in your subconscious and what turns you on in a certain way. We certainly try to be as original as we can when we make music and we really think of ourselves as doing something original. But we can’t stop people from saying that it sounds like this and it sounds like that because everyone is obsessed with trying to make sense of it for themselves.

Perhaps it’s some sort of music journalism instinct I guess?
KM: And it’s also marketing as well. When you find yourselves or you see bands being marketed as “this band meets that band” it’s just the age we live in. Where there’s so much music and you know people are looking for ways to make others attracted to it.

I meant the chief thing to say about any sort of electronic act, is it sounds like the same kind of music from the 80s. I meant to say that the new music that’s coming out of Australia is a little bit more darker, like yours. Some of which even seem sarcastic, like there’s a different kind of edge to it.
JH: There’s a nostalgia to it, there’s definitely a “thing”. You hear the nostalgia in it, but we really are playing things sort of from our hearts, you know? I think maybe there was a time when things were a little bit tongue in check–

KM: It’s definitely not ironic or sarcastic, we’re quite serious about it. There’s no attitude problem.

JH: It’s from the heart.

KM: And we love it, you know what I mean, it’s a real turn on.

JH: There’s no irony. What is irony anyway? We make music based on our lives and what we love. If it starts to have little nods here and there to maybe bands from the past or a certain time then perhaps… It is true no band is an island; we’re not in a vacuum. But when we’re in the studio making our thing it really is just us two and our machines in our world. Of course we can’t shake that. All the music that we grew up with, that’s inside of us and all the training at school … we can’t shake that. But definitely when we’re working together it’s really special and we actually go to an effort to not listen to music and not go and see bands and not buy all the latest albums and read all the bullshit blogs cause’ we really want to isolate ourselves and have a really clear channel between our head, our hands, and the sounds.

“We try and make it our own thing. Every band - what band isn’t derivative?! Who’s coming out with a wholly original thing?”

So is there any new music that you do listen to?
KM: Stuff always comes through.  It’s weird, I find personally I like listening to music less and less. If I do listen to music it’s more functional than anything else.

JH: It’s getting harder and harder for us to be fans.

KM: We don’t listen like the way you probably would. And this isn’t a dis but it’s very much the musical journey we had when we were younger and like buying albums and all that sort of stuff has kinda collapsed. It ended a long time ago. Once you start doing your own thing you start to realize that you’re actually in that pile of cds that you own. You need to be nudging your way through it and not embracing everything. At the same time there’s lots to be learned by listening. It’s not like we have closed minds and we don’t listen to stuff. It’s just that we-don’t-at-the-moment kind of vibe.

JH: That’s the thing, it’s very hard to be moved by music anymore. Like the first time you heard Daft Punk’s ‘Da Funk’ in a nightclub. I was actually touched, you know? I don’t know if the music scene is changing or maybe it’s our heads.

KM: Stuff like that happens pretty rarely overall.

JH: Don’t get me wrong, you hear something like Hercules and Love Affair you appreciate it … and you enjoy it. But it’s not the same thing.

KM: We’re at a different age where it means less. Whereas like in your late teens and your 20s your music means so much about defining who you are. But we’re defined, now. [Laughs] We’re finished.

JH: Kids are enjoying our music in the same way that we enjoy those bands that we were talking about. It means so much to them. Stupid kids.

So did you all flip out when you got to open for Daft Punk?
KM: We didn’t piss our pants like a little girl.

JH: More like a little boy.

KM: Maybe we would’ve years ago, but it was cool. It was really fun. It was great.

So I guess I’m not sure if this is just my opinion or if this is true, but the imagery for a lot of your videos can be partially unsettling. ‘This Boy’s In Love’ is very violent and ‘Talk Like That’ where the girl is destroying instruments while you are talking obscure dialogue.
JH: Well not many people [say that]. You’re the first person to not say “homoerotic.” I guess there’s a dark edge to what we do.

KM: The Presets has always been like that. It’s like that feeling of going mental. Our music’s always had a sinister edge like the side of clubbing that’s a little bit hedonistic and letting loose. We don’t make the videos but I guess we’re attracted to the ones that have a little bit of that darkness in it.

I actually didn’t think “This Boy’s In Love” was homoerotic. Most of [the video] they’re beating the crap out of each other then they kind of hug in the end, I didn’t get it.
JH: That’s refreshing. Whenever there’s two guys with their shirts off they immediately think homoerotic. But you know, girls in bikinis, so much of that.

So you released some singles right?
KM: Oh I’ve released some dance stuff, yeah

Are there any plans for a solo album in the future?
KM: ‘They’ wanna milk it as much as possible so I guess there will be. There’s stuff there that came out on an album in Japan about two or three years ago and Modular has taken it all and gotten a few extra remixes. They’re going to release it digitally and maybe physically. They’ve got all these plans but I just let them do whatever. I’m not really interested in it. It’s something I did when I was bored a long time ago.

So there’s not any plans for you to go into the studio by yourself?
KM: Not really, I mean when we get time for that to actually happen, that’s when me and Julian will go into the studio and do that sort of stuff [together]. I’ll probably continue to do little bits and pieces by myself, but that’s more sketch orientated to kind of help this move forward. But anything’s possible at the end of the day really.

+ video: The Presets ‘Talk Like That’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhgcl8rqIUE